San Jose Sharks' defenseman Brent Burns sidelined

SAN JOSE -- The Sharks will be starting the season without one of their top defensemen, but nobody is offering specifics on either the lower body injury to Brent Burns or how long he might be out.

"I don't have an idea on timeline, I really don't," coach Todd McLellan said after Friday's skate. "I think we'll see him skating quite quickly, and then we've just got to get him up to speed. It'll be a day-to-day thing for a while."

Burns, who drew leaguewide attention with a team mug shot with wild hair and an extremely bushy beard, has not been available for several days and even then declined to talk about his situation.

The 6-foot-5, 225-pound defenseman is considered one of the mainstays on San Jose's blue line. He underwent sports hernia surgery in May, was declared healthy by the team on Oct. 9 and skated during the final days of the lockout. He has not been seen on the ice since camp opened.

"I don't think so," the coach said. "He took care of himself. He was out there trying to get himself ready."

McLellan acknowledged the team will miss Burns on defense, where a wrist injury has sidelined Jason Demers as well.

"He's got size, a tremendous shot, he can skate and play a lot of minutes," McLellan said of Burns. "It's a big hole."

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Rookie Matt Irwin has earned a shot at Burns' spot in the top two defense pairs, having skated with Dan Boyle throughout training camp.

In addition to Boyle and Irwin, the Sharks defense pairings for Sunday's opening game in Calgary are expected to be Marc-Edouard Vlasic with Brad Stuart and Douglas Murray with Justin Braun.

The Sharks will use four players from Worcester to fill out their opening-day roster -- two forwards with NHL experience in James Sheppard and Frazer McLaren, two defensemen without any in Irwin and Nick Petrecki.

Altogether, San Jose will open the season with 23 players. Burns was on the roster list, though he will not play this weekend; Demers, who is recovering from a wrist injury in Europe, was not.

McLellan has said the situation could dictate whether he uses Sheppard, 24, a Minnesota first-round pick in 2006 who had 11 goals and 49 points in 224 games with the Wild, or McLaren, 25, whose most notable NHL stat is 85 penalty minutes in 39 games over three seasons with the Sharks.

"He's a little more a heavyweight than I am," said Sheppard, who added that he and McLaren lived together in Worcester. "We'll probably just chirp each other and try to get each other out of the lineup."

Petrecki, 23, was a Sharks first-round pick in the 2007 draft and is likely to start as the team's spare defenseman, while Irwin, 25, is paired with Boyle. Irwin was signed as a free agent in 2010 after leaving UMass-Amherst.

McLellan said the weeklong camp has given the new coaches on his staff, Larry Robinson and Jim Johnson, their first chance to mesh with players.

"I found early in the week, a lot of players were coming to me or coming to Jay because they felt comfortable with the relationships we built," McLellan said of fifth-year Sharks assistant coach Jay Woodcroft. "You can see it more now where the players are comfortable going to Larry and Jim, so that's a good sign."